Iain Martin is a political commentator, and a former editor of The Scotsman and former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the men who blew up the British economy, published by Simon & Schuster.. As well as this blog, he writes a column for The Sunday Telegraph. You can read more about Iain by visiting his website

Labour: try imagining being told what to do by Lord Clegg forever

If elected, all of these people would look - and act - like Nick Clegg

It seems that Labour is going to vote for an elected House of Lords, while voting against the time-tabling of the coalition's bill. That would mean Labour sticking with its wrong-headed commitment to an elected second chamber whilst also throwing an enormous spanner in the works. It could ensnare the government for more than a year in a messy fight with the many fired up Tory MPs who have had enough of the Lib Dems and their ahistorical constitutional vandalism. But the bill would still pass after that delay.

It illustrates just how bonkers the whole thing is that today’s Cabinet meeting should have been taken up by a discussion on a subject which will seem arcane to many Britons. This on the day that borrowing figures came out which show that George Osborne’s Plan A seems to be RIP. The Eurozone is also preparing for a key summit on the future of the ailing single currency. It is not as though there is a shortage of important subjects for ministers to consider. But on the Government ploughs.

If the briefing about Labour deciding to vote in favour of an elected Lords is true, then it is a terrible shame. I thought the party’s wiser heads might have realised that they should be openly trying to kill this off. The main effect of House of Lords reform will be to create an entrenched group of elected Lib Dem peers who could hold Labour or Tory governments to ransom, unless, once a century, they manage to pull off simultaneously an overall majority in the Commons and a majority, under PR, of elected Peers.

In recent months I have heard sharper Labour types say they understand the horrifying implications. Imagine, as one said to me, being back in government but being told what to do in perpetuity by an ennobled/elected Lord Clegg of Brussels, Baroness (Shirley) Williams and assorted other Lib Dem hangers-on, sorry, Senators.

Clegg’s reforms will see these Senators elected on 15 year non-renewable terms. If they are to be barred from having outside interests, as Clegg wants, they’ll almost certainly end up being paid more than MPs. Imagine the puffed-up swagger of the newly-elected Senator, knowing that he or she has a bigger mandate than a mere MP (the constituencies will be much bigger) and will never have to face the voters again.

Like quite a bit of British life, the House Lords as currently constituted isn’t ideal but it works. Through custom, practice, tradition, evolution and several revolutions (glorious or otherwise) we have ended up with a second chamber which generally does its job well. The Commons clearly has primacy, as the elected body, and the Lords is in essence a revising chamber packed with experienced experts. Do its numbers need trimming as Peers live ever longer? Of course, and such changes should be looked at.

But an elected House of Lords is one of Nick’s Clegg worst ideas. Think what a bad idea that makes it.